A research chief from the Russian Academy of Sciences – an organisation overseen by the Duma and, ultimately, Putin himself – told the agency: ‘We are constantly encountering obstacles of a moral, psychological and ethical nature. There are no willing people among the astronauts.’

The spacemen are reportedly spooked because of a ‘conspiracy theory’ which has done the rounds in Russia for several years.

He didn’t specify who was gathering this ‘biomaterial’ and added: ‘The question is – why is it being done? It’s being done purposefully and professionally. We are a kind of object of great interest.’

This picture of a Russian S-300 air defence system launching a missile during military exercises was released on June 19, 2019, and seems strangely apt to this story (Image: Reuters)

The news agency RIA Novosti claimed officials were spooked by this statement and started to worry that foreign agents were gathering genetic information in order to build some sort of bioweapon designed to wipe out the Russian people.

It wrote: ‘It is quite possible that some of the astronauts believe that their biomaterial can be used for some “evil” purposes.

‘Recall the story of a new conspiracy theory, voiced at the end of 2017 by Russian President Vladimir Putin, about the collection of biomaterial by US intelligence for the subsequent development of biological weapons against Russia, is very popular among officials and politicians.

‘Although in the opinion of scientists, such a problem does not exist.’

The experiment is designed to study spermatogenesis- the development of sperm.

This has led to speculation that Russia wants to arrange the first conception and birth of a baby in space.

It’s not officially known if anyone has actually had sex in space yet – let alone had a baby.

At the turn of the century, it was claimed that Nasa had carried out an experiment called STS-XX in which astronauts tried out various sex positions in zero gravity and concluded that only four were possible without ‘mechanical assistance’ whilst another six required a special elastic sex tube

Perhaps unsurprisingly, this story was revealed to be a hoax in 2010 after it was discovered that documents about the research were fake.

In 2017, it was reported that Putin had ‘tightened his control’ over the Russian Academy of Sciences by giving himself a range of powers including the right to choose its president.